I Really Don't Want a Girlfriend Anymore

Chapter 619 619: Hundreds of Ways Tenkuji Yuu Dies

"So, the earliest version of me got the Girlfriend Development System and dated Kanade, peacefully carrying out system tasks... Until high school graduation day, Kanade died from heart disease. Unable to bear this blow, I became useless, letting the system kill me when it left, while Kanade, who had become a ghost and stayed with me, refused to accept this outcome. She used a system item I had once given her, transformed into a ball of light and flew away?"

Pressing his temples and pondering for quite a while, Yuu finally delivered this summary to Sora, with a slightly strange expression.

"Turns out I'm that fragile, huh... Even though the person in the video is me, I still want to run over and punch him, tell him to snap out of it and not just collapse like that."

Sighing with some annoyance, Yuu rubbed his cheeks, organizing his complex emotions after watching the video.

Honestly, his life's pillar wasn't just his girlfriend.

After all, Sora was by his side, taking care of him, and quickly becoming mature due to his influence. To take him to the hospital for psychological treatment, Sora even worked hard to overcome her social phobia. Yet, the version of him in the video still looked half-dead...

(You useless older brother, shouldn't your little sister be your most important treasure?!)

(Look at her tears, you bastard!)

Yuu desperately wanted to scold the version of himself in the video, but after thinking it over, if Iroha had an accident in the real world...

Although he was confident he would be depressed for at most a week and would quickly pull himself together so as not to worry Sora, that initial confidence disappeared without him realizing it.

After all, he knew himself. To put it nicely, he was very emotional. To put it badly, he was glass-hearted—if there was no one to be his pillar, he would have no regrets about his second life.

So, if Kanade in the video was replaced with Sora, he would probably arrange her funeral and then follow her without hesitation.

The version of him in the video clearly loved Kanade no less than his little sister, so Yuu wasn't surprised by that better-dead-than-alive reaction; somehow he could even understand it...

Because he only chose to face death calmly when the system threatened his life—that was murder at best.

And he, having lost his loved one, never thought of suicide because he still had his little sister by his side.

Perhaps in a few more days, the Yuu in that world could emerge from past sorrows and start a new life so as not to worry his family.

Unfortunately, the system took away such a future, ending everything abruptly.

Giving an ending filled only with sadness and regret to the Yuu in that world.

"...Sora, I have a few questions."

After calming down, Yuu asked Sora, who had been quietly waiting for him, giving him time to think.

"First is about the system. I'm using the Girlfriend System in the real world. But here I'm using the Life Achievement System, and in the first world line it was the Girlfriend Development System... Is it possible that in every world line, I'll be approached by various types of systems?"

What kind of law is this?

Are systems really the standard cheat for world travelers? Or does he have a physique that easily attracts systems?

"It's not like that."

Sora shook her head, rejecting his opinion, and with calm eyes pushed up her glasses, "No matter how the world line changes, in the summer at age seventeen, Yuu will be possessed by the same system—this is like a law of physics in this world. Even if repeated countless times, we can't influence this rule."

"I see..." Yuu gasped, feeling the situation had become very serious, "Then why does the system show such differences? Did you all influence it?"

"You'll understand after watching." Sora smiled faintly, playing mysterious. She seemed to have decided to be a riddler and directly changed the subject.

"Any other questions? Though I may not necessarily answer them."

"Hmm..." Yuu wanted to ask what exactly that ball of light was, but remembering that this little sister from another world might dodge again, he finally spread his hands helplessly.

"Forget it, I'll ask after watching everything... Oh right, how many more videos are there after this?"

Sora answered casually, "There are several hundred unedited versions, and about two or three edited ones."

"You've really gone to a lot of trouble..."

"Not at all. For me, having something to do to pass the time is better than anything."

Her gaze immediately became distant, Sora said with deep emotion, "If you've played all the games in your room thousands of times, you'll understand my feelings too."

"..."

How much worldly suffering had she gone through for his sake?

Yuu reflexively wanted to feel sympathy, but seeing her wearing a lab coat and waving a magic wand randomly, that sympathy somehow became difficult to muster.

"Let's not talk about this anymore, straight to the next video."

Along with her voice, the darkened projector screen lit up again.

It was the earliest summer afternoon again, only this time starting from a top-down perspective, and there was a captivating, delicate, and gentle narration voice.

"I am Tachibana Kanade."

"My lover once told me that except in cases of crime, it's best to leave records when doing important things, to face any unexpected possibilities."

"So, from now on, before I truly change his future, I will record everything and save it in this system."

"I will always remember everything about him, just as he once lived on in my heart."

"Yuu, I love you."

Under Yuu's shocked gaze, the introduction ended, and the images began moving again.

"First, let me explain my current situation."

"After using the item Yuu left behind to Level Up myself, somehow, I transformed into a ball of light... Maybe Light Orb sounds better?"

"As a Light Orb, I have very great power... I don't know how to describe it, but as soon as I think about it, I can return to the past, more than a year ago, before I met him, and I don't feel any energy being depleted."

"However, that seems to be the limit. Actually, I wanted to return to Yuu's childhood, to see if I could save him and Sora's parents... Unfortunately, I can't. And I also can't affect reality, I can't even move a small stone."

"So what can I do? If I don't know for the time being, I'll just stay by Yuu's side."

"I took time to check the house. I found that the me in this world doesn't exist. Maybe because I myself have transformed into a Light Orb? What's the principle... Hmm, but this is good."

"No need to worry about my illness every day, and can also save medical expenses for outings, plus I won't faint from crying when I die... After thinking about it, maybe it's better that I don't exist."

"Although I'm used to it... However, the feeling of being ignored by everyone is really unpleasant."

The gentle voice sighed, but quickly became energetic again.

"Found him, that's Yuu."

The perspective slowly descended until it reached a familiar street intersection.

The handsome young man named Tenkuji Yuu had just finished his part-time work, wiping sweat and storing his small salary in his pocket. Although looking a bit tired, his eyes were filled with hope for life and the future, as bright and hot as the rising sun.

"Today, I can buy more meat for Sora!"

His appearance energetically encouraging himself made the girl who was now just a light orb unable to hold back a small laugh.

"So Yuu had this side before we met..."

"In my memory, he was always almighty, never troubled by material problems, and worked part-time at the cafe only to repay kindness. I didn't expect he'd be so happy about being able to buy more meat... It feels kind of adorable."

Pausing for a moment, the girl sighed, "If only I could have met him a long time ago, how wonderful that would be..."

At the same time, Yuu who was about to enter the house suddenly stopped his steps, showing an expression mixed with astonishment and surprise.

The girl sharply realized something was wrong, quickly flew into his body, and found a glowing orb very similar to herself in his head area.

"Is this the system Yuu mentioned? This is what ultimately killed Yuu..."

Although she wanted to be angry, the girl felt it was a waste of time to be angry at something without consciousness that only acted according to rules.

After trying and failing to use her power to remove the system from Yuu's head, Kanade decided to postpone the battle, coexist with it temporarily, and see if there was an opportunity to destroy it.

During her lifetime, Yuu had taught her that when she didn't have a chance to win, it was better to conserve her strength and gather information first. When the opportunity came, only then should she strike with one blow, avoiding unnecessary impulsive attacks.

As said in Sun Tzu's Art of War, be as unknowable as shadows, move like thunder.

Following the instructions he left behind, Kanade decided to stay in Yuu's soul space with the system, slowly gathering various information about it, and became Yuu's guardian spirit, watching over his new life with a warm gaze.

Everything proceeded on a similar but different track.

Also the Girlfriend Development System, and before long Yuu met a girl he truly liked. He began dating and being intimate with his girlfriend while carrying out tasks, the process not much different from their initial meeting.

Kanade always watched all this from behind him. Although her heart couldn't help feeling sour, like her treasure was being taken by someone else, she didn't look away.

Because it had been so long since she'd seen that smile of happiness from the bottom of his heart, and that gaze full of love and tenderness.

Even though the object wasn't herself, Kanade felt very relieved—because that was the future she hoped for, the goal she strived for, even reversing time and performing miracles as a ghost.

"Yuu... You must become happier than anyone else."

With such a prayer in her heart, the girl couldn't help but look forward to a future where Yuu married and had children with a woman other than herself, and lived together until old age.

Time passed, and a year went by peacefully.

As the strongest evolved Light Orb, Kanade soon used her power to penetrate most of the system in Yuu's brain, and quickly obtained much useful information and skills.

First, the system's origin was unknown, its structure was unknown, and its principles were unknown. It was like a gift conjured by a god, just to give some lucky mortals a chance to achieve success in one step.

Second, its operational basis was somewhat like computer programming, namely a code structure composed of zeros, ones, and some pictographic characters. It was a perfect creation combining technology and mystery, and modern human knowledge wasn't sufficient to deconstruct or control it.

Unfortunately, Kanade wasn't just a modern human, she was also a small light egg that could control mysterious powers and reverse time.

She set aside being his guardian spirit temporarily and began concentrating on studying the system—using the perfect-level programming skills Yuu had once taught her, plus the almighty power of the Light Orb itself, after a year of effort, she finally succeeded in cracking most of the system's functions.

Naturally, she created an administrator account for herself and deleted all options related to destroying the Host, making this truly a good and beautiful system that thinks of the Host, giving various benefits without hesitation, like a falling durian.

After doing these things, Kanade suddenly remembered that the real world seemed to have already entered graduation season. She wondered if Yuu successfully entered university peacefully.

Also, although he couldn't hear it, she wanted to immediately tell Yuu—she had successfully changed his fate and saved him from an unhappy future!

"I succeeded, Yuu—"

However, that overflowing hope and joy was soon doused with a bucket of cold water by a reality she hadn't felt in a long time, cooling into a river of ice that froze consciousness.

The source of this incident was the little sister Yuu always loved, and his companion—Sora.

Apparently Yuu accidentally got his current girlfriend pregnant. Sora, learning of this, became very shocked. Whether it was avoiding reality, or accumulated dissatisfaction from the past exploding at this moment.

She fled back to their hometown, Okinomachi, while Yuu accompanied his girlfriend to the hospital for examination, and planned to commit suicide in the lake. Her suicide note read: "Yuu needs another family, so he doesn't need me anymore."

At that time it was pouring rain, and there were flood and typhoon warnings throughout the country. The girl's body was immediately swallowed by the overflowing and turbulent lake water.

Trains stopped, and that small town was isolated at a distant periphery. The sky was pitch black, as if the world would end at that moment.

Nevertheless, Yuu still used every means he had, rescued Sora who was nearly dead at the most critical moment, and after reviving her with artificial respiration, successfully reconciled with her.

The siblings hugged tightly in the heavy rain, crying over their feelings for each other.

If the sky could clear here, perhaps this would just be a thrilling but not bad story?

A landslide destroyed all hope.

Okinomachi was a small town located at the foot of a mountain. Various developments in recent years had made the forest ecology not as good as before, so once a landslide occurred, it was like the entire mountain collapsing, nothing could stop that terrifying natural disaster explosion.

Especially at the lakeside close to the forest. Yuu didn't even have time to escape, could only stare at the muddy torrent surging toward him, and could do nothing but kneel and pray.

His physical strength was nearly exhausted, the system only gave him various skills related to girlfriend development, and in his arms was a thin girl who had just returned from death's door.

Yuu immediately gave up on escaping and did the only thing he could do at that time.

Finding a large rock to lean against, tying himself tightly to it with rope, then pulling a rain tarp to cover them both, protecting his little sister with his body as much as possible, letting rocks and trees break his body, destroy his consciousness, and crush his flesh and blood.

Facing natural disaster, he had no better way, and didn't know if this was purely a futile action.

However, even so, he had to make himself the last wall to protect his family member who had fainted in his embrace.

After that, the rushing mud swallowed everything on the ground.

Including the small town, including the lake, and also including the older brother not far behind the large rock, who used his body to shelter a sliver of life for his little sister.

"..."

Kanade silently watched the screen automatically recorded by the system. The Light Orb substituting her body floated above the mud, its light unconsciously dimming drastically.

She was too late.

She couldn't do anything, and had no time to do anything.

She could only, once again, witness the tragic end of the person she loved.

"Why is it like this..."

Even though everything was going much more smoothly than before...

Even though Yuu's girlfriend this time didn't have any illness...

Even though Yuu had already thought of names for their future children...

Even though a happy ending for him was right before their eyes...

"Is all this my fault?"

Murmuring sadly, Kanade wanted to cry but didn't feel the presence of tears.

If she hadn't been immersed in the work of analyzing the system, perhaps she could have used her own power to prevent this accident...

"—No, this isn't the time for self-blame!"

The Light Orb suddenly rose into the air, bringing along the smaller light orb floating up from beneath the mud.

Forcing herself awake from reluctance and sadness, Kanade's voice gradually became colored with firmness and determination like before, from fragile.

"If this time doesn't work, try again next time!"

"I swear, I will definitely save you, Yuu—"

"No matter how many times it must be repeated, I will definitely protect you!"

Time began to reverse. The Light Orb, under the clear sky, gradually became transparent.

Crossing the formed river of time, she continued reversing against the current, searching for the starting point that wrote all this as tragedy.

This was the second time.

Perhaps there would be a twentieth, a two hundredth, a two thousandth...

Before she reached a happy ending, Kanade's journey would never stop—the Sound Light Orb chasing miracles would continue forward, alone and forever.

"This time, better modify that system first..."

While murmuring, the sound of summer crickets returned.

On the familiar road, the young man wiped his sweat, showing a tired but energetic cheerful smile.

And at the edge of the distant sky, two light orbs quickly flew toward his head, about to change his miraculous life that was already destined to be extraordinary.

◆━⊰✧⊱━◆

The screen slowly dimmed.

Sitting in his chair, Yuu stared at Sora beside the podium expressionlessly, working hard to suppress an expression that was almost distorted, and said in a calm tone:

"I want to know, Sora..."

"Do those hundreds of videos only record hundreds of ways I die?"